A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
So lately I've seen discussions about where/when pheasants will run, when they'll flush, how often they dump mud, etc. But what are some of the weirdest, most surprising things you've seen them do?
2 years ago, a friend, our 2 dogs, & I were walking the edge of a slough on a WPA. He was on the inside edge of the cattails, with his dog mostly in them. Ace & I were just outside the cattails in that thick, matted junk & thick CRP grass. Both dogs were fairly birdy for quite a while, but no birds. Eventually the slough edge made kind of a 90-degree turn. Ace, who'd been hot OUTSIDE the cattails charged into them & immediately was in a deep spot with several inches of standing water. We naturally didn't feel like getting wet, so just stood & waited, while Ace did his thing, figuring he'd play a little, get a drink, & come on out. Instead, he continued to slop further & further into the cattails. We could hear him. He was still in at least several inches of water (guessing 6"-8"). When he got 60-70 yds in, he flushed about 25 pheasants (none of which flew anywhere near us, of course). I've flushed many pheasants from standing water before, but usually very close to the edge & pretty shallow water. This bunch of birds, I believe, were running ahead of us for quite some time, at least a couple hundred yards. Then, when terrain changed significantly, rather than continue running on dry ground or flush wild, they opted to run into the water. Lots of water. Every one of them. And they'd have been safe there too, allowing us to pass, had Ace not followed them in and eventually flushed them. We were really surprised. I wouldn't have guessed a pheasant, much less 25 of them, would choose running into a bunch of water to evade dogs/hunters, in lieu of almost any other option. To this day, I can't decide if it was more likely they could just barely reach the mucky bottom with their toes, or if they were somehow able to hop between cattail clumps & somehow use the bases of the clumps as stepping stones, or if pheasants, when sufficiently motivated, can actual run on water. It was weird.
What weird stuff have you seen pheasants do?
2 years ago, a friend, our 2 dogs, & I were walking the edge of a slough on a WPA. He was on the inside edge of the cattails, with his dog mostly in them. Ace & I were just outside the cattails in that thick, matted junk & thick CRP grass. Both dogs were fairly birdy for quite a while, but no birds. Eventually the slough edge made kind of a 90-degree turn. Ace, who'd been hot OUTSIDE the cattails charged into them & immediately was in a deep spot with several inches of standing water. We naturally didn't feel like getting wet, so just stood & waited, while Ace did his thing, figuring he'd play a little, get a drink, & come on out. Instead, he continued to slop further & further into the cattails. We could hear him. He was still in at least several inches of water (guessing 6"-8"). When he got 60-70 yds in, he flushed about 25 pheasants (none of which flew anywhere near us, of course). I've flushed many pheasants from standing water before, but usually very close to the edge & pretty shallow water. This bunch of birds, I believe, were running ahead of us for quite some time, at least a couple hundred yards. Then, when terrain changed significantly, rather than continue running on dry ground or flush wild, they opted to run into the water. Lots of water. Every one of them. And they'd have been safe there too, allowing us to pass, had Ace not followed them in and eventually flushed them. We were really surprised. I wouldn't have guessed a pheasant, much less 25 of them, would choose running into a bunch of water to evade dogs/hunters, in lieu of almost any other option. To this day, I can't decide if it was more likely they could just barely reach the mucky bottom with their toes, or if they were somehow able to hop between cattail clumps & somehow use the bases of the clumps as stepping stones, or if pheasants, when sufficiently motivated, can actual run on water. It was weird.
What weird stuff have you seen pheasants do?
